[Mython]

I tried messing about with the EQ settings but the message pops up when the volume reaches 59, it needs around 80 to be at a level where the headphones reach their potential.

The message has nothing to do with EQ settings.

I have seen the mandatory warning, have taken notice of it, and now I would like to remove it, because it is, like I said, a total PITA.

If it can't be done then I will need to grin and bear it, but it is patently ridiculous to have the damned message pop up again and again.

I don't see why my enjoyment of something should be interrupted because some morons don't know when their music is too loud.

More digging (using the forum search for "volume" on this thread only), suggests that this nuisance may have been introduced with the latest firmware v1.17. My PD is on v1.14.

wild guess, but try to
1. Reset
2. Choose USA as a country

I am not sure about Cowon Plenue D as such back some 10 years ago there was some weird regulation in EU that covered portable players among other things, and players such as Cowon and Sansa Clip had lower volume / volume notification messages as long as you choose European location.

Please post here if it works or if it doesn't.

I realise this reply is 5 years too late, but the reason I'm posting it is that I still use Cowon Plenue J and Plenue D(1) players (and if the old J3 was still being made, I'd just have 3 or 4 of those and be very happy!).

Things have moved on so much in the past 5 years, and sound quality has substantially improved, but I get so sick & tired of seeing the industry endlessly churning out DAPs that weigh 250g-500g (or even heavier) and the size of paperback books. There are a few exceptions, but far too many players have forgotten that they are supposed to be pocket devices, not transportable rigs or so heavy they strain your pockets.



That being the case, I recently bought another Plenue D, as my Plenue J battery is on the way out and I haven't yet explored if there are any DIY options for replacing the battery, like I did with my old J3:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/cowon-j3-impressions-thread.484334/post-11206193


The secondhand Plenue D I've just bought reminded me that my other Plenue D has the annoying EU volume cap on it (warns you every time you try to increase volume over 60%), so I decided it was finally time to get rid of the nag screen.

I used to know how to solve the issue, but years have gone by and I'd forgotten and couldn't find the right search term to unearth the solution here on Head-fi (maybe I posted it years ago in J3 or Plenue J threads - I don't remember).


Anyway, after a little trial & error, I gradually remembered that the solution to get rid of the volume-cap nag screen on a Plenue D is to download the 1.20 firmware, copy those firmware installation files to the root of your Plenue D internal memory, and BEFORE YOU DISCONNECT from the computer to begin the DAP's standalone firmware update, delete the 'System' folder. In my case, I deleted all folders except for my 'Music' folder.

So, the root directory of my Plenue D looked like this:

Music (folder)
PLENUE_D_FW.BIN
PLENUE_D_FW2.BIN
PLENUE_D_RS.BIN

Then unmounted/ejected the DAP from my computer, disconnected the USB cable, and then switched the DAP on and let it update itself with the firmware files on the root directory. After updating, it will switch itself off and then you can switch it back on, and it'll ask you what language to use, then it'll ask you if you live in the EU or outside the EU.
Select 'outside EU' and you'll never have that annoying volume nag screen again.

Ironically, the EU may cease to exist in the near future, anyway...


By the way, if anyone knows someone who's replaced their Plenue J or Plenue D(1) battery, please let me know - it may save me some time figuring it out for myself, when the time comes.

Cheers.

 

[daijobudes]

I realise this reply is 5 years too late, but the reason I'm posting it is that I still use Cowon Plenue J and Plenue D(1) players (and if the old J3 was still being made, I'd just have 3 or 4 of those and be very happy!).

Things have moved on so much in the past 5 years, and sound quality has substantially improved, but I get so sick & tired of seeing the industry endlessly churning out DAPs that weigh 250g-500g (or even heavier) and the size of paperback books. There are a few exceptions, but far too many players have forgotten that they are supposed to be pocket devices, not transportable rigs or so heavy they strain your pockets.



That being the case, I recently bought another Plenue D, as my Plenue J battery is on the way out and I haven't yet explored if there are any DIY options for replacing the battery, like I did with my old J3:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/cowon-j3-impressions-thread.484334/post-11206193


The secondhand Plenue D I've just bought reminded me that my other Plenue D has the annoying EU volume cap on it (warns you every time you try to increase volume over 60%), so I decided it was finally time to get rid of the nag screen.

I used to know how to solve the issue, but years have gone by and I'd forgotten and couldn't find the right search term to unearth the solution here on Head-fi (maybe I posted it years ago in J3 or Plenue J threads - I don't remember).


Anyway, after a little trial & error, I gradually remembered that the solution to get rid of the volume-cap nag screen on a Plenue D is to download the 1.20 firmware, copy those firmware installation files to the root of your Plenue D internal memory, and BEFORE YOU DISCONNECT from the computer to begin the DAP's standalone firmware update, delete the 'System' folder. In my case, I deleted all folders except for my 'Music' folder.

So, the root directory of my Plenue D looked like this:

Music (folder)
PLENUE_D_FW.BIN
PLENUE_D_FW2.BIN
PLENUE_D_RS.BIN

Then unmounted/ejected the DAP from my computer, disconnected the USB cable, and then switched the DAP on and let it update itself with the firmware files on the root directory. After updating, it will switch itself off and then you can switch it back on, and it'll ask you what language to use, then it'll ask you if you live in the EU or outside the EU.
Select 'outside EU' and you'll never have that annoying volume nag screen again.

Ironically, the EU may cease to exist in the near future, anyway...


By the way, if anyone knows someone who's replaced their Plenue J or Plenue D(1) battery, please let me know - it may save me some time figuring it out for myself, when the time comes.

Cheers.

You will have successfully battery swapped with NPaudio! They’re very good!

 

[phase0]

By the way, if anyone knows someone who's replaced their Plenue J or Plenue D(1) battery, please let me know - it may save me some time figuring it out for myself, when the time comes.

It's been many years now but I had an old Cowon player many years ago that I needed a battery replacement and Cowon replaced for a reasonable fee. You might be able to get them to service it if you don't mind being without it for a couple weeks.

 

[Mython]

It's been many years now but I had an old Cowon player many years ago that I needed a battery replacement and Cowon replaced for a reasonable fee. You might be able to get them to service it if you don't mind being without it for a couple weeks.

Thanks, that would've been my first choice, but I don't know of any official Cowon service centres in the UK that can do this. I was chatting to a friend recently who is in the same position as me, and he said he was told by advancedmp3players UK that they can no longer do it.

I will contact NPaudio, at some point, as daijobudes suggested, but if anyone knows an official route to get it done in the UK, I'm all ears!

 

[Mython]

I no longer have my J3 as the screen died and I had to bin it, so I don't have a Sony BA700 battery to measure - if anyone can post accurate measurements of a BA700 battery, I'm interested to know.


J3 with replacement Sony BA700 battery installed:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/cowon-j3-impressions-thread.484334/post-11206193

However, because the original J3 battery was 1120mah (which is 50mah more capacity than the 1070mah installed in the newer Plenue J), it seems highly unlikely that a Sony BA700 battery would fit into a Plenue J.

Original J3 battery:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/cowon-j3-impressions-thread.484334/post-15741443

Anyway, I finally popped open my Plenue J, and the original 1070mah LiPo battery measures 45mm x 55mm x 4mm.

Since I was on a roll, I decided to open one of my Plenue Ds, too. Its original 1800mah LiPo battery measures 43mm x 63mm x 5.3mm (the thickness was measured in-situ, as I didn't want to unnecessarily break the double-sided sticky tape holding it in the DAP, since this battery has plenty of life left in it, at the moment).

I noticed something in both the Plenue D and Plenue J that surprised me (some of you may already know this, but I didn't). I expected the 'internal memory' to be soldered memory (as you will see from the two URL links at the beginning of this post, the J3 memory was soldered), but it turns out the Plenue D & J just have a hidden microSD card in a slot that can only be accessed when the DAPs are disassembled. A 32gb Sandisk microSD card in the Plenue D, and a 64gb Sandisk microSD card in the Plenue J. I'm toying with the idea of swapping these internal cards for 128gb cards (maybe Cowon's firmware won't like this), but that can wait - my main priority at the moment is simply replacing the Plenue J battery.

Incidentally, I think I recall Cowon saying that the external/user-accessible memory slot of the Plenue D/J maxed-out at 128gb, but I admit I can't find any mention of this in the user manuals.

http://support2.cowon.com/contents/dn2/data/C09/PLENUED/PLENUE_D_Manual_EN.pdf
http://support2.cowon.com/contents/dn2/data/C09/PLENUEJ/PLENUE_J_Manual_EN.pdf


Cowon never made it clear whether a memory limitation was baked into their firmware (perhaps to stop the DAP from being insanely slow to index too many music files and folders during boot-up), or if there was an actual hardware limitation on 256gb+ microSD cards. Maybe the temporary index (generated during each boot sequence) could be a limiting factor? They did clearly state that, regardless of memory card capacity, there was a limit on how many folders the DAP could manage (this may have been around 8000 folders, but my memory is hazy about that). Folder number has never been an issue for me - just overall memory capacity, because some of my files are large audiobooks.
I never actually tried an external memory card bigger than 128gb.
I don't like the slow boot-up of mini Cowon DAPs, but I am accustomed to it, after so many years, so I think I will go ahead and try a 128gb internal card (along with my existing 128gb external card) and I'll report back in this thread with my findings.





Plenue J circuitboard at top of photo; Plenue D circuitboard at bottom of photo. On each board you can see the hidden memory cards. I assure you, these are not the user-accessible memory card slots - those can be found on the reverse side of each circuitboard (therefore not visible in this photo):

I spent a couple of hours searching the internet (Farnell, Mouser, eBay, battery.org.uk, etc.) for a suitably-sized Plenue J battery and it proved difficult to find one thin enough whilst having suitable length, width and capacity. So many LiPos are 5, 6, or 10mm thick. Annoyingly, Cowon have made the 4mm original battery a very tight squeeze - anything thicker than 4mm looks likely to prevent the back cover of the DAP from closing properly. This really limits options for a 3rd-party replacement.

In the end I decided life is too short to hunt for a perfect battery with maximum capacity, so I settled on an easy option, of a slightly lower capacity (1000mah instead of 1070mah) which can be ordered immediately, and very cheaply. Luckily, they're being sold on eBay UK. My logic is that a 1000mah battery working at full capacity is going to have waaay longer playback duration than a knackered 1070mah battery working at barely 40% capacity, so I should still be on a winner, even if I am losing 70mah off the original battery spec. This is the battery I purchased from eBay. It is being sold as a '404050' LiPo (as in 4.0mm thick x 40mm wide, by 50mm long). I hope it doesn't turn out to be thicker than advertised!:

Please note: I am not encouraging anyone to disassemble their Plenue J or Plenue D - they are quite awkward to disassemble, and there is always the potential for injury when using thin blades to seperate casework and when removing and installing lithium batteries. Of particular note in this instance is the fact that Cowon have used very strong double-sided tape to fix the LiPo batteries into the DAPs, and anyone trying to just rip the battery out of the DAP is likely to literally rip the battery apart in so doing, which could, potentially, result in electrolyte leakage, short circuit, fire, or even explosion. However, for those of you with plenty of common sense, plenty of caution, patience and (hopefully) a bit of experience, maybe this post might give you a headstart when your Plenue J or D battery begins to deteriorate.

I will post this in the Plenue J thread as well - I only posted it here in the Plenue D thread because, as an owner of both models, I mentioned it in my post last week, and it's nice to have some continuity in the discussion, as it can sometimes be difficult to find useful breadcrumbs using the forum search function.

I may even replace the battery in one or both of my Plenue Ds, at some point, and if I do, I'll be sure to post my experiences in this (Plenue D) thread.

I did do a quick search, but, so far, the closest battery I can easily find for the Plenue D is a 504050 (5.0mm x 40mm x 50mm), which is only 1500mah compared to the original 1800mah. If anyone reading this feels like doing a little battery hunting, to help this thread, the correct size, as I mentioned earlier, is 1800mah 43mm x 63mm x 5mm. Looking at the DAP, it looks like these measurements could maybe be pushed to 44mm x 66mm x 5mm, but no more than that.

 

[Mython]

Regarding external microSD card capacity limitation, I just took these screengrabs from Cowon's own online shop:


Plenue D1

Plenue D2

Plenue D3

Plenue J

Plenue V

Regardless of what Cowon say, I'm still going to experiment with a 128gb microSD internally in my Plenue D1 and Plenue J, with a 128gb inserted externally at the same time.

As for the external card slot being limited to 128gb, I don't recall FAT 32 being limited to no bigger than that, but I've been out of the head-fi game for a few years, so maybe I'm missing something obvious.

 

[technobear]

Regarding external microSD card capacity limitation, I just took these screengrabs from Cowon's own online shop:


Plenue D1




Plenue D2




Plenue D3




Plenue J




Plenue V





Regardless of what Cowon say, I'm still going to experiment with a 128gb microSD internally in my Plenue D1 and Plenue J, with a 128gb inserted externally at the same time.

As for the external card slot being limited to 128gb, I don't recall FAT 32 being limited to no bigger than that, but I've been out of the head-fi game for a few years, so maybe I'm missing something obvious.

It's a limitation of the hardware in the PD. It can't address anything above 128GB. If you stick a 256GB card into it, you will see all the files and folders (because they are in the directory) but only those files which reside in the lower 128GB will actually play.

Someone has put a larger card inside before so it should work. The details are probably here somewhere if you search for them.

 

[mj021108]

I just wonder if there is anyway to get a new (leather) case for plenue d / d2 in 2023?
since mine were aged already

 

[Mython]

It's a limitation of the hardware in the PD. It can't address anything above 128GB. If you stick a 256GB card into it, you will see all the files and folders (because they are in the directory) but only those files which reside in the lower 128GB will actually play.

Someone has put a larger card inside before so it should work. The details are probably here somewhere if you search for them.

Thanks for clarifying.

Seems like you're perhaps implying that the larger (more than 128gb) microSD cards use a different architecture to allocate & address the many more millions of clusters, and older microSD reader/writer chipsets lack the language to comprehend the updated architecture. That vaguely rings a bell (about updated architecture within the microSD cards themselves, I mean). I think I remember reading something about that when 200gb microSD cards were first released to market, by Sandisk.

....just did a quick internet search, and this 2015 article vaguely mentions incompatibility issues between some devices and the then-new-to-market Sandisk 200gb microSD card (although it doesn't explain why):

https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/sandisk-ultra-microsdxc-uhs-i-200gb-card



In any case, I'll order another 128gb in a week or so and put it inside the D / J DAPs and report back, just to confirm.

128gb internal + 128gb external is OK for such a tiny DAP. It'll be 96gb more than I currently have in my Plenue Ds.


I used to be on Head-fi all the time, but took a few years off, and a heck of a lot of water can flow under the bridge (lots of forum conversations) whilst you're away. Far, far, too much to browse through, and because I've done more than my fair share of forum searching in the past (building & maintaining the extensive Chord Mojo FAQ, for example), I must admit it's made me a bit jaded, after so many crappy results from the hit&miss forum search function. One gets to the point where the prospect of using the search function just makes you roll your eyes and decide to give it a wide berth!

 

[dawningistheday]

In any case, I'll order another 128gb in a week or so and put it inside the D / J DAPs and report back, just to confirm.

I'm excited to hear the results!

 

[Mython]

It's a limitation of the hardware in the PD. It can't address anything above 128GB. If you stick a 256GB card into it, you will see all the files and folders (because they are in the directory) but only those files which reside in the lower 128GB will actually play.

I was idly contemplating this issue, at work today.

If you look at my screengrabs of Cowon's online shop, they state that the maximum microSD card capacity is 128gb, even for the Plenue D3:

If that's still because their hardware is incapable of reading all of a 200gb-1TB card, then that really is disgraceful - it's 8 years since the 200gb cards were brought to market by Sandisk, and around 7 years since the D1 was released. It's bad enough, the D1 being handicapped to max 128gb, but the D3 (and D2) should damn-well have been brought up to date to read these cards properly.


I don't own a D2 or D3 (battery life only half that of the D1, so I prefer to own D1s). Do any of you know if D2 and/or D3 definitely can't properly read 200gb+ microSD cards?

 

[Mython]

I just wonder if there is anyway to get a new (leather) case for plenue d / d2 in 2023?
since mine were aged already

You probably have a good chance of getting a genuine case in Hong Kong, since Cowon Plenue D cases were made in China.

Here in the UK, TUFF-LUV cases for the Plenue D are currently listed on eBay:

ebay.co.uk/itm/203043730300

 

[Mython]

Made an annoying discovery this afternoon - I opened up my second Plenue D and found that it doesn't have any hidden microSD card slot, so I can't upgrade the internal memory at all. Here you can see I've installed a 128gb Samsung card into the internal memory slot of the lefthand Plenue D, but on the righthand Plenue D, that slot doesn't exist:

Here you can see top & bottom of the PCB that has only one card slot:

The first Plenue D seems to have been successfully upgraded with a 128gb card, but I haven't had time to fill the card completely:

 

[Boldricus]

So we have at least two versions of Plenue D PCB's, as I see "Plenue_D Ver 2.0" label on the board.
Not just the hidden slot, but also the layout of the board is slightly different, interesting.

 

[Boldricus]

I was idly contemplating this issue, at work today.

If you look at my screengrabs of Cowon's online shop, they state that the maximum microSD card capacity is 128gb, even for the Plenue D3:

If that's still because their hardware is incapable of reading all of a 200gb-1TB card, then that really is disgraceful - it's 8 years since the 200gb cards were brought to market by Sandisk, and around 7 years since the D1 was released. It's bad enough, the D1 being handicapped to max 128gb, but the D3 (and D2) should damn-well have been brought up to date to read these cards properly.


I don't own a D2 or D3 (battery life only half that of the D1, so I prefer to own D1s). Do any of you know if D2 and/or D3 definitely can't properly read 200gb+ microSD cards?

I didn't tested bigger than 128GB card yet, so I have no idea how it is with bigger cards.
Just don't forget to the limitation of how many files can player manage. Plenue D had file count limit afaik around 12k files if I remember it correctly.